TV version of School of Rock’ heading to Nickelodeon

By Yvonne Villarreal, Los Angeles Times

As if Nickelodeon wasn’t already a school of rock with its many teen stars turned pop stars, the network announced it has given a straight-to-series order to a small-screen adaptation of the 2003 film “School of Rock.”The network is teaming up with Paramount Television, the small-screen arm of Paramount Pictures (the studio that produced the film), to produce the series. It marks Paramount Television’s first dip into children’s programming.As with the film, the show will follow the madcap adventures of a rocker-turned-substitute teacher Dewey Finn at a prestigious prep school. The film starred Jack Black in the lead role and featured Miranda Cosgrove as one of his pipsqueak pupils before she went on to star on Nickelodeon in “iCarly.”“ ‘School of Rock’ is one of those great movies that always felt quintessentially Nickelodeon in its tone and humor, and we jumped at the opportunity to partner with Paramount Television and bring it to life as a TV series,” Russell Hicks, president of content and development at Nickelodeon said in a statement. “Once again, kids will be able to laugh and rock!”The network has ordered 13 episodes of the series. Production is scheduled to begin this fall, with a rollout slated for next spring. Casting for the series, according to the network, will be announced soon.In addition to writing the series, Jim and Steve Armogida (“Crash & Berstein,” “My Family”) will serve as executive producers and show runners. And the film’s kingpins will have a hand in the small-screen version: the movie’s director Richard Linklater (currently earning buzz with his film opus “Boyhood”) and producer Scott Rudin will be executive producers of the series.

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